A mixed bag of RPG-related stuff: Fate, Powered by the Apocalypse, and D&D

Sunday, June 16, 2013

FAEntasy: Approaches

Okay, in my last post, I mentioned something called "FAEntasy" which is the working title for my hack of FAE with old school gaming. I love the old school renaissance (short: OSR), as my articles on the Drowning Woods show. But most OSR games don't have that many "fiddly bits" as one of my players called them. Especially my favorite Old School+ game: Lamentations of the Flame Princess. One solution to that issue would be using FAE (FATE Accelerated Edition, in case you are wondering). Since FAE is already using the Open Gaming License (OGL for short), it becomes part and parcel with a lot of old school inspired gaming in form of the SRD of the third edition of the oldest fantasy RPG on the planet.

This is my attempt for hacking FAE into a FAEntasy game recognizable to fans of old school gaming.

First, I am going to replace the six approaches with classes (kinda like BareBones Fantasy). I will still call them approaches, but change their name and function. The new class-based approaches are:

Bard: The way of word and song. Making a good impression, getting people to react favorably to you, finding your way around respectable society.

Cleric: The servants of the gods. Nurturing and healing with words of wisdom. But also smiting the undead and casting spells in the name of demigods and deities.

Fighter: The warrior who wades into battle, swinging his sword, smashing his enemies with knowledge of war and tactics.

Ranger: The scout and woodland archer. Knowing how to use ranged weapons, how to survive in the wilds, how to hunt and track enemies.

Thief: The ultimate urban survivalist. Sneaking and hiding, attacking from the shadows, knowing your way around the seedy underbelly of the cities. Fencing stolen goods aquired illegally.

Wizard: The sage who knows spells and secret knowledge. Also called warlock or sorcerer, magic-user or mage. She wields the arcane might that permeats the world.

Each player will start of with one Good (+3), one Fair (+2) and one Average (+1) approach. The all other approaches will remain at Mediocre (+0).

Why these six? Well, I figured that a combination of them can be used to build other classes like the assassin (Fighter/Thief), the druid (Cleric/Ranger), the barbarian (Fighter/Ranger) or the paladin (Fighter/Cleric).